- Feb 1, 2005
- 19,120
- 6,003
- Staff
- #1
Cesc Fabregas looks likely to leave Arsenal for Barcelona in the near future and his departure creates not only a large hole in the Top 4 side's midfield but also a big headache for Arsene Wenger.
The constraints of a 25-man squad have been well documented and Premier League teams have been feeling their way somewhat in learning how to deal with being limited to 25 players over the age of 21 for match-day squads. Teams have sent established, experienced international players out on loan to both save them being idle and attempt to raise their value for future sales.
Cesc Fabregas doesn't need any help in that department. His impressive Premier League career has seen him likely to move to the European Champions for around 35million pounds.
This is a sizeable amount of money for Wenger to rebuild and rumours are that he is close to bringing in Argentinian Ricardo Alvarez as a direct replacement.
Alvarez' fee is unknown but speculated to be around 10-15m. That leaves Wenger with plenty of change to invest in other areas of his squad.
However, in swapping Fabregas for Alvarez, Wenger has created a new problem for himself. Fabregas, under Premier League rules, is qualified as "homegrown". He learnt his trade playing in England for more than three years before turning 21. The same cannot be said of Alvarez.
Last season, Arsenal had no trouble hitting the clause of the Premier League's 25-man squad rule that states that eight of their squad must be "homegrown". They had seven 'first teamers' - Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Alex Song, Johan Djourou, Alex Mannone and Niklas Bendtner - plus any five from their many youth team players (they named only twenty out of the possible twenty-five 'first teamers' in 2010/11).
But take another look at that list. Fans of transfer speculation will see the extent of Wenger's headache. In addition to the likely departure of Fabregas, Gael Clichy has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester City, Denilson was reported to be allowed to leave and the likelihood of Bendtner ever pulling on a Gunners' shirt again is remote at best after he has numerously and publicly voiced his desire to get away from The Emirates.
If those players were to leave, Arsenal would have Song, Djourou and Mannone as their only "homegrown" players. A small mercy is that Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Armand Traore are now old enough to be members of a First Team Squad. However, that still means that Arsenal must sign two English trained and qualified footballers just to have a squad that is eligible to start this season.
The current market for English footballers has seen Jordan Henderson - a player recently outclassed by his Spanish equivalents, themselves unlikely to usurp Fabregas for club or country any time soon - sign for Liverpool for 20million pounds.
Meanwhile, Wenger has in the past twelve months jettisoned promising young players such as Mark Randall, Thomas Cruise, Jay Simpson, Roarie Deacon, and Luke Ayling for the sole reason that he could not find a place for them in his 25-man squad. An academy which has had the football world excited and expecting big things is threatened with petering out before it becomes clear just how good some of its graduates are. Wenger is known to be angry about being forced to release these players but is powerless to prevent situations such as the one that saw Kerrea Gilbert stuck at Arsenal for a year after his 23rd birthday but unable to participate in first team affairs.
So, who will Wenger turn to to fill his quota of homegrown players? Scott Parker and Gary Cahill are two names that have been linked and would provide some much needed leadership experience. However, the required outlay for the pair added to the Alvarez sum does nothing more than cancel out all the money received for Fabregas. And leaves serious questions about whether Arsenal are any better prepared for a Premier League title challenge. Further investment seems mandatory.
And that question becomes even deeper if the likes of Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin leave The Emirates as has been mooted.
Not least because if this does happen, Arsene Wenger is only one move away from having to replace them with an English equivalent. And as anyone who has watched the national side or their Under-21 compatriots recently will tell you: the pickings there are slim.
The constraints of a 25-man squad have been well documented and Premier League teams have been feeling their way somewhat in learning how to deal with being limited to 25 players over the age of 21 for match-day squads. Teams have sent established, experienced international players out on loan to both save them being idle and attempt to raise their value for future sales.
Cesc Fabregas doesn't need any help in that department. His impressive Premier League career has seen him likely to move to the European Champions for around 35million pounds.
This is a sizeable amount of money for Wenger to rebuild and rumours are that he is close to bringing in Argentinian Ricardo Alvarez as a direct replacement.
Alvarez' fee is unknown but speculated to be around 10-15m. That leaves Wenger with plenty of change to invest in other areas of his squad.
However, in swapping Fabregas for Alvarez, Wenger has created a new problem for himself. Fabregas, under Premier League rules, is qualified as "homegrown". He learnt his trade playing in England for more than three years before turning 21. The same cannot be said of Alvarez.
Last season, Arsenal had no trouble hitting the clause of the Premier League's 25-man squad rule that states that eight of their squad must be "homegrown". They had seven 'first teamers' - Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Alex Song, Johan Djourou, Alex Mannone and Niklas Bendtner - plus any five from their many youth team players (they named only twenty out of the possible twenty-five 'first teamers' in 2010/11).
But take another look at that list. Fans of transfer speculation will see the extent of Wenger's headache. In addition to the likely departure of Fabregas, Gael Clichy has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester City, Denilson was reported to be allowed to leave and the likelihood of Bendtner ever pulling on a Gunners' shirt again is remote at best after he has numerously and publicly voiced his desire to get away from The Emirates.
If those players were to leave, Arsenal would have Song, Djourou and Mannone as their only "homegrown" players. A small mercy is that Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Armand Traore are now old enough to be members of a First Team Squad. However, that still means that Arsenal must sign two English trained and qualified footballers just to have a squad that is eligible to start this season.
The current market for English footballers has seen Jordan Henderson - a player recently outclassed by his Spanish equivalents, themselves unlikely to usurp Fabregas for club or country any time soon - sign for Liverpool for 20million pounds.
Meanwhile, Wenger has in the past twelve months jettisoned promising young players such as Mark Randall, Thomas Cruise, Jay Simpson, Roarie Deacon, and Luke Ayling for the sole reason that he could not find a place for them in his 25-man squad. An academy which has had the football world excited and expecting big things is threatened with petering out before it becomes clear just how good some of its graduates are. Wenger is known to be angry about being forced to release these players but is powerless to prevent situations such as the one that saw Kerrea Gilbert stuck at Arsenal for a year after his 23rd birthday but unable to participate in first team affairs.
So, who will Wenger turn to to fill his quota of homegrown players? Scott Parker and Gary Cahill are two names that have been linked and would provide some much needed leadership experience. However, the required outlay for the pair added to the Alvarez sum does nothing more than cancel out all the money received for Fabregas. And leaves serious questions about whether Arsenal are any better prepared for a Premier League title challenge. Further investment seems mandatory.
And that question becomes even deeper if the likes of Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin leave The Emirates as has been mooted.
Not least because if this does happen, Arsene Wenger is only one move away from having to replace them with an English equivalent. And as anyone who has watched the national side or their Under-21 compatriots recently will tell you: the pickings there are slim.
- y'know, like, do our neighbours a favour and help them out a bit:wink:
